On dissolving morphological long distance dependencies in Russian verbs

Abstract

This paper presents implementational issues of a finite-state approach for two crucial parts of Russian verbal morphology: Aspect formation and deverbal nominalization with nie based on aspect formation. The first process involves morphological blocking in order to avoid overgeneralization and is implemented with the xfst- tools via combining two powerful mechanisms - flag diacritics and rewrite rules. This considerably helps reducing the network size while having only small effects on processing time. Deverbal nominalization with nie has also been considered as involving some form of blocking. However, we show how to reanalyze this morphological process as a simple case of phonological neutralization which fits into a broader theory of the Russian sound system. The analysis and implementation presented here are thus theoretically consistent while maintaining implementational effectiveness.